Saturday, August 11, 2007

So, we’re going to have a little change of venue here. As racing heated up and I still had to go to my job, I didn’t have much time to keep an entertaining blog going. Kenji here seems to have the wherewithall to keep a site going full-on, so I’m going to drop some reports here. I’m going to keep posting on the raceoregon.blogspot.com site, just so I have all of my work in one place, but obra3.com is now your one-stop shop for all the bike racing minutiae your weary eyes can handle.

Another reason I lost momentum on my site is that this time of year usually leads to a dearth of cycling related news. Most of us seem to be winding down a bit, hitting a few crits and otherwise takin’ it easy.

Speaking of crits, Seth Hosmer(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) triumphed again on the mean streets of Vancouver. The break went early, as Donald(CMG), Seth, and Kirk Carlsen(Rubicon). The CMG boys played they’re cards right and Seth went on a long range attack with a few laps left to cruise in for a W. Good thing too, because Kirk dusted Donald in the sprint for second.

Nick Skenzick (Hutch’s/OIC) defended the south of Salem territory that is so kind to his massive legs and won in Harrisburg. The race was probably most notable because Zach Winter (Capitol Subaru) was in fact racing and was, once again, DQ’d. No word on why, and he’s probably not answering my messages anymore, but chalk another one up for Oregon’s most enigmatic cyclist. It also marked a new organizer putting on a race in Oregon, hopefully all went well and he will be around to put on bigger, better and more races. How about a crit in downtown Eugene? There’s gotta be a sponsor for that somewhere.

Seth then won the OBRA TT champs, no surprise there. I thought that Rob English(Bike Friday) might give him a run for his money, but Seth seems to be finding some late season form.

A bit of info I gathered on Mr. English: He is actually from England. He is working at Bike Friday for awhile. In England, if you’re a recreational cyclist you just race TT’s, there aren’t many road races. Rob was the national amateur TT champ of England. I imagine that is somewhat akin to winning an American Elite National Championship. He rode a 10:15 up McBeth Rd. When Billy Truelove was going crazy fast, he posted a 10:45 up McBeth. I’m not sure what Karl Maxon posted in his day, but imagine that Rob crushed any previous record. Apparently he had never ridden a mass start race before coming here. He races on a Bike Friday bike.

Jacob Rathe is coming back from Belgium with some wins, incredible.

A couple of crits on tap this weekend, Crawfish in Tualatain and the OBRA Crit Champs on Sunday at the traditional, and scenic, Gresham course. Watch out for CMG, though Bike Gallery usually has some experienced legs that can go fast for an hour or so. I’m not sure if the Rubicon guys will still be around.

The big one, Portland Twilight Crit, got pushed back a few weeks this year. Mark your calendars for Friday, August 24. It will be fun, there’s beer and music and a ton of people, and probably a bunch of pro’s to make all us amateur guys look silly in front of our families and friends. If you’re single and able to race, this is basically the ONLY opportunity you have all year to actually meet a girl due to a bike race, better bring a tight game.

1 comment:

I used to do a periodic set of "intervals" for AT work, within a set time, within an AT range, with a set rest period. Set of 6 climbs, each climb was approx. 8'45 to 9'15 with target to be consistently at 9' and be within AT range. Sometime in the weeks before I won the Prolog at Redlands by a 10 second or so gap to 2nd place I set a fast time of about 8'35 up McBeth if I recall. That was a good year at Redlands - another top 3 and two top 10's including in the overall too I believe.

Those were the "summer" times. In winter with 10-13 pounds of wet cloths the times would be about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes slower. In those antique days my race bikes maybe weighed 21-24 lbs depending on year and components/tires etc.

The start of the timing point was at the base of the hill just before a yellow sign across the road from the "duck farm" on the left - then all the way to the very very top (well past the turnoff to go down Fox Hollow road)- there was was a small bench on the left side of the road looking west - the timing end spot was just past this point at the crest of the climb.

I think Greg Randolph (who went to the Atlanta Olympics) was really really fast up all the climbs in the area. I don't think I was the fastest up McBeth, as there were quite a few people living in Eugene over the years (and now) that were (are) really race hardened and knew how to suffer, and those like RAAM specialist Rob Templin I think crushed people on the climbs (after an 8 hour ride too).

There's other great climbs in the area too. Mt. June, Willamette Street, McGowan, Shotgun and Brush Creek, Horton. It was hard to find climbs over 8-10 minutes close to town and the long climbs above were all an hour out or more. Most of the "usual" climbs, like on Wolf Creek, Dillard, or Hamm Road were really short - typically 8 minutes or less, or "flat" like Fox Hollow that was like a drag strip and it would take forever to get the heart rate into the AT range. I'd be lucky to turn a 26 tooth anywhere these days though, and a ride up any climb would do me in for sure!!! Enjoy the rides - it's a fantastic area for training!